288. Reverse Meal Planning, Stock-Up Staples & Grocery Hacks for Real Life | Christine of Frugal Fit Mom

Summary

Episode Summary: Simple Farmhouse Life Podcast Episode 288
Title: Reverse Meal Planning, Stock-Up Staples & Grocery Hacks for Real Life
Host: Lisa Bass
Guest: Christine from Frugal Fit Mom
Release Date: May 6, 2025

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1. Introduction to Grocery Budgeting Challenges

In Episode 288 of the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast, host Lisa Bass delves into the pressing issue of managing grocery budgets amidst rising prices. Acknowledging the stress many face in maintaining healthy family diets without overspending, Lisa highlights the struggle of balancing nutrition with financial constraints. She introduces Christine from Frugal Fit Mom as the ideal guest to discuss effective strategies for grocery savings.

2. Meet Christine: Frugal Fit Mom

Christine, a seasoned mom of five active teenagers, brings over two decades of experience in frugal living and meal planning. Her channel, Frugal Fit Mom, focuses on extreme couponing, reverse meal planning, and maximizing savings without compromising on family nutrition.

3. Reverse Meal Planning: A Strategic Approach

Christine introduces the concept of reverse meal planning, a method where meal plans are created based on current sales and available pantry staples rather than starting with recipes. This approach ensures that budgeting is prioritized by leveraging discounts and bulk purchases.

Christine [26:18]: "It's called reverse meal planning where you take what you already have and build from that."

4. Essential Stock-Up Staples

Central to maintaining a frugal kitchen is stocking up on shelf-stable essentials. Christine emphasizes the importance of having a well-stocked pantry with items that have a long shelf life, reducing the need for frequent store visits and impulsive purchases.

Key Staples Mentioned:

• Grains: Rice, flour, and sugar are fundamental for various meals.
• Dairy Alternatives: Evaporated milk offers versatility in recipes.
• Proteins: Ground beef, chicken, and other meats when purchased on sale.
• Canned Goods: Beans and other legumes with extended shelf lives.

Christine [08:55]: "I'm always looking for flour, sugar, rice. We go through rice like crazy people; we eat rice all the time."

5. Maximizing Grocery Budgets: Aim for the Lowest Possible Costs

Instead of adhering to a fixed per-person budget, Christine advocates for spending as cheaply as possible each month. This flexible approach allows for variability based on fluctuating sale prices and family needs.

Christine [14:51]: "My goal is as cheap as possible. So some months it's $200, maybe another month it's $500."

6. Smart Shopping Strategies: Online vs. In-Store

Christine shares her preferences for shopping methods that minimize costs:

• Walmart Pickup: A cost-effective alternative to Instacart, reducing additional fees and impulsive buying.
• Avoiding Delivery Services: Instacart often doubles the cost due to marked-up prices and extra fees.
• Seasonal and Local Sales: Monitoring weekly ads online to time purchases when items are on significant discounts.

Christine [05:37]: "Instacart is more expensive. It's almost double the cost."

7. Balancing Quality and Cost: Organic Choices

While Christine largely avoids organic products to maintain her budget, she makes exceptions for essential items like milk. She underscores that organic choices are often non-negotiable in specialized diets but advises flexibility based on what's affordable and necessary.

Christine [17:29]: "I do organic milk only, but my kids are older, they're not drinking milk all day anymore."

8. Meal Planning Aligned with Family Preferences

Understanding family eating habits is crucial. Christine discusses tailoring meals to her family's likes, such as using rice as a staple carb and incorporating proteins like salmon and chicken when they are on sale. She emphasizes flexibility and adaptability in meal composition to prevent waste and ensure meals are both enjoyable and economical.

Christine [24:15]: "I have a chicken and rice casserole that I make sometimes. Uses rice. I feel like I'm always cooking rice."

9. Enhancing Meal Variety on a Budget

To keep meals from becoming monotonous, Christine suggests simple yet effective techniques:

• Using Sauces and Spices: Enhances flavor without significant cost.
• Incorporating Fresh Additions: Adding fresh herbs or affordable vegetables to diversify dishes.
• Batch Cooking: Preparing large quantities of versatile ingredients like flaked salmon for multiple meals.

Christine [32:21]: "Meals do not have to be complicated. They can be a protein, a vegetable, and a carb."

10. Budget-Friendly Treats and Fun Foods

Christine shares creative and inexpensive treat ideas that the whole family can enjoy:

• Peanut Butter Banana Bites: Coating bananas with peanut butter and sprinkling chocolate chips.
• Homemade Ice Cream: Utilizing surplus milk or cream to create affordable desserts.

Christine [47:57]: "I always have chocolate chips and peanut butter and bananas. We cut it into bites; they love it even now."

11. Effective Stocking and Storage Techniques

Proper storage is essential to prevent food spoilage and maximize shelf life. Christine offers practical tips:

• Freezing Proteins in Portions: Ground beef and chicken are stored in individual portions for easy thawing.
• Using Large Containers: Storing bulk items like rice and sugar in sizable containers to save space and reduce packaging waste.
• Utilizing Multiple Freezers: Managing storage across different freezers to organize bulk purchases efficiently.

Christine [10:09]: "Freeze it in the increments that like my family is a two-pound at dinner. If I bought 30 pounds, that's 15 dinners that I have in the freezer."

12. Cooking Techniques for Better Flavor

Enhancing the taste of home-cooked meals doesn't require expensive ingredients. Christine highlights the importance of basic cooking principles:

• Salt and Fat: Essential for flavor and richness.
• Avoiding Overcooking: Preserving the texture and taste of proteins by not overcooking.
• Using Fresh Ingredients: Adding fresh vegetables or herbs to elevate dishes.

Christine [33:03]: "If your food is bland, you need salt and fat. It's that simple."

13. Resources and Further Learning

Christine directs listeners to her YouTube channel, Frugal Fit Mom, where she offers a plethora of videos covering money-saving tips, grocery strategies, and extensive recipe archives. She specifically recommends her highly-acclaimed banana bread recipe for those looking to enhance their baking repertoire.

Christine [53:26]: "I'm just on YouTube at Frugal Fit Mom. You have over a thousand videos from saving money tips, grocery savings tips, and cooking recipes archives."

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Key Takeaways:

• Reverse Meal Planning: Start meal planning based on current sales and pantry staples to maximize savings.
• Stock Up Wisely: Focus on shelf-stable and frequently used items like rice, flour, sugar, and meat when on sale.
• Flexible Budgeting: Aim to spend as cheaply as possible rather than adhering to rigid per-person budgets.
• Smart Shopping: Utilize cost-effective shopping methods like Walmart Pickup and avoid high-fee delivery services.
• Enhance Flavor Economically: Use basic cooking principles like seasoning with salt and fat to improve meal taste without added costs.
• Creative Treats: Incorporate inexpensive homemade treats to satisfy family cravings without overspending.

For more detailed tips and recipes, visit Frugal Fit Mom on YouTube and explore the extensive resources Christine offers for frugal living and meal planning.

Transcript

[Lisa]

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[Christine]

We were an ingredient house. I only bought the ingredients to make the meals. We didn't buy granola bars. I I didn't buy fruit flavored syrup for pancakes. That was a splurge. We couldn't afford that, right? I didn't buy popcorn. I didn't buy fruit snacks. I would make my own granola because I was like who can afford to buy granola but oats are cheap. I made everything from scratch. I didn't buy bread. I made bread. I didn't buy lasagna noodles. I made lasagna noodles.

[Lisa]

My name is Lisa, mother of eight and creator of the blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse on Boom. On this podcast I like to talk about simplifying your life so you can live out your priorities. I help you learn how to cook from scratch and decorate on a budget through this podcast and my courses Simple Sourdough and the Simple Sewing Series. I also help people reach their goals from home through my business course, YouTube Success Academy. I will leave links to these resources in the show notes in Description box below. Now let's get into the show. Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. Today we're going to talk about grocery budgets and staying on track. Especially right now when everything can feel and is more expensive, how to still stay within a budget, nourish your family, and not also be a perfectionist about it. I think this is a great topic because a lot of us feel like, okay, well, if I don't do everything absolutely perfectly, which is going to cost me, you know, 10x my grocery budget, then my family can't live, like, a healthy life. So I think that's an important thing to dive in. And I can't think of a better person to talk about that with than Christine from Frugal Fitness Mom. So let's dive in. All right, Christine, so glad to have you back on. I had several people recommend you, and I was talking about doing a grocery episode where we dive into saving money, because that's on everybody's mind with groceries right now. And you're the person. Christine of Frugal Fit Mom. So tell us a bit about yourself and your channel. You. You've been on here before, and you also have your own podcast.

[Christine]

I do, yes. So I have one skill, and it's shopping for really cheap. That's. That's the one thing that I'm good at. So I just, you know, picked up a camera and started making videos, and it resonated with some people. Isn't it interesting that this topic has been a hot topic since 2020?

[Lisa]

Well, pretty much probably forever. But, yeah, even More so since 2020, because since 2020, we've been on this, like, you know, very bad training.

[Christine]

And I kept thinking, like, it has to go down. Like, I keep thinking that. And then here in 2025, I'm like, more than ever. I've been wrong a lot. Yeah.

[Lisa]

Well, I feel the same way about sourdough, because sourdough was. Is my niche, and it went nuts in 2020, but it hasn't stopped. It just kept going. And so that's been very weird.

[Christine]

It's bigger now than it was in 2020.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Christine]

You didn't think that was going to happen, right? But it did.

[Lisa]

No, I thought for sure. I still think, like, at any moment, it's all just going to, you know, people are just going to get over it. But so far, so good. But that's probably because they're trying to save money on groceries, and that's a really cheap and easy staple. So, yeah, you share over at Frugal Fit Mom, I noticed one of your recent videos is Cheap Items to Hoard, how to stockpile.

[Christine]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

So that seems like a good topic.

[Christine]

Yeah. It's basically just making sure you have a pantry that's full of shelf stable items where you can whip up some basic things without having to hit up the grocery store. You know, I think our biggest downfall the at the grocery store, one of them there's a lot is being like, oh, I don't have fill in the blank so I gotta run over. And every time you step foot in the grocery store, you're spending more than if you had just done one shop for the week or, or once for two weeks. And so having a really nice built out pantry, especially when there are sales on things that don't go bad, will save you money in the long run.

[Lisa]

Yeah, so are you. I know you don't. Last time I talked to you anyways, this was a while ago. But you don't do grocery pickup or Instacart or anything like that. Do you feel like that in some ways could help people to not buy those impulse purchases or do you have like your list narrowed down? I'm not buying anything beyond that.

[Christine]

So here's the problem with that is Instacart is more expensive.

[Lisa]

Yeah, Instacart puts. Yeah, you told me that. And so I've actually like pretty much exclusively for the last several years switched to Walmart.

[Christine]

That's a better option.

[Lisa]

They don't add that.

[Christine]

That's a better option. Yeah, they're much less expensive. I think there are a couple of other stores that do the delivery stuff like Walmart. Plus I don't live in an area that has a ton of them. So I only have one store that does Instacart and it's Albertsons, which is more expensive anyway. And then, and then I don't get any sales. So every time tried to work around the Instacart thing because I do research for my channel, you know, is it possible to use this feature and save money? It never ever is. It's almost double the cost for Instacart.

[Lisa]

What's the reason? Yeah, because. And maybe it's regional because we have Aldi, which I know you think's pretty cool. You got to check it out in Florida. So yeah, the only thing I would Instacart would be Aldi, which is very economical, but just with the charge of adding like a little percent to each item. Or is there like, have you looked into other areas and it may be cheaper or is it pretty much across the board?

[Christine]

Like I said, I've never tried it with Aldi when I've been in an area that has Aldi. So I could not speak to that because I don't have that experience. Yeah, they do raise the price of every item. So the prices you're seeing on the Instacart shopping site, they're more than you would do anyway. And then you have your Instacart fee, your delivery fee, your tip for the driver, all of it. It's, it's so much extra. I, I'm really a fan of Walmart pickup because it's the cheapest of the options. If you're not going to go into store, if you have a impulse issue, yeah, do Walmart pickup. Make your list. Don't go into the store. Save time by not wandering around looking for stuff. But in doing that, you don't get to pick your own produce, which I'm kind of weird about. Like I really want to pick my own stuff and I don't love Walmart's produce in general just as a concept. I don't find that they have great produce. I finally, I find it goes bad pretty quickly. So I'm a little picky about that. And you miss out on the clearance and the big sales because a store like Walmart and even a store like Aldi, they don't have these sales ads in it where they have super discounted stuff because I love to shop the major sales, get the major sales and leave.

[Lisa]

That's a good idea. I will say I went into Walmart once. Like I go in so infrequently, but I went in once in the last couple months and I was like, is chicken actually this cheap? Like I had no idea you could find. It was like this massive tray of chicken. I, I for, I think it was like $6. It was crazy. I'm like, I've never seen this before.

[Christine]

Seriously, you've never seen that before? I don't buy, I don't buy chicken unless it's under $2 a pound, ever.

[Lisa]

I mean like the whole thing was $6.

[Christine]

Yeah, it was like, yes, that, that is how I buy chicken.

[Lisa]

Okay, well tell us about it then. Your recent video. And I, I know you probably can't remember all the things you said on it, but what are some of your items that you always have like, you're like looking for. If I find this for a good deal, I know it's not going to go bad. I can store it long term. I'm going to stock up as much as possible if I see it.

[Christine]

So I would, I don't want people to buy things just because I buy them. I buy the things that I use. So I'm always looking for flour, sugar, rice. We go through Rice. Like crazy people, we eat rice all the time, like three, four days a week. Rice is part of our dinner.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Christine]

And so I'm always looking for those. And we use evaporated milk a lot. I'm always looking for that. And then I'm always looking for meat because I find that to be pretty expensive in general. Um, and I have a couple of freezers. So if. If I'm finding my chicken for A$50 a pound, which I saw yesterday.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Christine]

Like here in 2025, I am still seeing it. I'm gonna go buy it. And then my Kroger store this week here in 2025, they have ground beef for 299 a pound. This week in their sales ad. 299 a pound? When was the last time you saw that price?

[Lisa]

I didn't know that that was even a thing, like in the 90s. No, I'm just kidding. I don't know. It's really cheap.

[Christine]

It's really cheap. That is time to stock up. So I'm gonna go to Kroger and I'm going to get like, it's time to buy £20, £30.

[Lisa]

Right.

[Christine]

Freeze it in the increments that like my family is a two pound at dinner. So if I bought 30 pounds, that's 15 dinners that I have in the freezer. And then if you like to can, you can can it. If you want to do that. You can freeze or meal prep if you want to do that. But that's something I know I'm going to buy in the future. My family definitely eats and uses and yeah, 2.99 a pound. It's a thing. I'm seeing it today.

[Lisa]

Okay. Yeah, we're. We're a big ground beef family as well. Because you can thaw it out really fast. Like I make sure to keep it in one pound. Even though we are a three pound for a meal family. I keep it in one pound increments so I can throw it in hot water and thaw it out. It's really versatile. So I don't think you're gonna go wrong getting too much ground beef. I mean, I don't most families. It's going to be fine. So I think a lot of people say, well, I don't have a deep freeze, but you're going to recoup that cost pretty quick if you are finding deals like that.

[Christine]

Yeah. And you know, if your freezer's not full, the things that take up a lot of room in the freezer are going to be like your frozen Vegetables take up so much room in the freezer. Your ice cream containers. So if you're not buying those, like you're not buying the Dino Nuggets. We never buy those. You'll have room for the rolls. They're not that big like.

[Lisa]

True though.

[Christine]

25 pounds of dry rice is actually, volume wise, very small. So it's pretty easy to store. And honestly, this is a little ridiculous. I have two freezers and a garage fridge. They were all free.

[Lisa]

Okay. Yeah, just keep your eyes peeled on.

[Christine]

They were all given to us.

[Lisa]

Put the word out.

[Christine]

Yeah. People are always getting rid of stuff. Your neighbor, you know, someone's replacing their kitchen fridge because it's like 30 years old and the ice maker doesn't anymore and there's gouges all over it.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Christine]

Throw that in your garage. Use it as an extra source.

[Lisa]

Yep, yep.

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Of your other stock up things that you're always looking for? And I'm curious too. Are you doing like, do you have a budget per person per month? Is that how you operate your grocery budgets?

[Christine]

I don't because my goal is as cheap as possible.

[Lisa]

I've always said the same exact thing. Like I've, I've been saying that forever. I'm like, I don't need a budget. I do as cheap as possible.

[Christine]

That's yeah. Cheap as possible. So some months it's 200 still because I am buying all these things at such cheap prices. So maybe one month it's 500. We're a family of five that live in my house right now. So I have three teenage boys. They're 13, 15 and 18. And then my husband, they're all very active in sports and.

[Lisa]

Right. So you probably make almost as much food as I do. Even though I have eight kids. But they're all little.

[Christine]

I make a lot.

[Lisa]

But the oldest. Yeah, you got these teenage boys, they.

[Christine]

Eat all the time. I think every single one of them eats two dinners. Like they eat dinner and then they have sports practice because they all, they all do sports. You know, they do competitive gymnastics and track and then they come home after practice at 8 or 9pm and they're eating again. So we do go through quite a bit.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Christine]

Trying to remember what your question was. Oh, other things.

[Lisa]

Oh yes, sorry. I Asked you two questions. I asked you what else you stock up on. And then also your grocery budget. But it's as cheap as possible because some months you might find 299 ground beef. And so you'll stock up. It's kind of hard to calculate because you might get more than you even need for that month. So then it'll roll over, but it's.

[Christine]

Just, I will, I will get more than I need for that month. Here's what I'll say. A good rule of thumb is a jump off point for people that want to do a calculation is about $150 per month per person. That's a start point. So. And that's leaning on the thrifty side. So if you're a family of four, that would look like 600amonth. Now, if you live in an expensive area, right. Hawaii, Manhattan, or you have dietary issues, allergies, you know, you have people that are gluten free or whatever, or you're eating keto or whatever it might be, you'll probably go up from there. And if you are really pushing the budget, you might go down a little bit, right?

[Lisa]

Yeah, Yeah. I guess it does depend on where you're located. And then also some people are worried about organic and sourcing and that can really sway the budget because I'm definitely not finding chicken for A$50 a pound from my local farmer or ground beef for $2.99 a pound from my local farmer. And so that's one of those areas where you have to just figure out, like, do I have the budget for this? And if not, is the stress going to be worth the difference as far as protein for protein, calorie for calorie. Right?

[Christine]

Yeah. So if you want to do, I would call organic a specialty diet, you are going to spend more, you just will.

[Lisa]

Oh, absolutely.

[Christine]

And that's a personal choice that you want to do. I, for the most part, do not do organic except for milk. I do organic milk only, but my kids are older, they're not drink milk and sippy cups all day anymore. So we're doing like our milk is $8 a gallon now for the organic, and I do about two gallons a week.

[Lisa]

Okay. Yeah.

[Christine]

Okay. So I'm spending with $16 a week on organic milk.

[Lisa]

But like I said, I'm not moving the needle that much. Like, it's really not that big of a line item.

[Christine]

The quantity is not huge. But as far as everything else, I don't, I don't jump into the organic if I find it on sale or something. Great, I'll do it. But it's not one that I'm like organic only no matter what. So able to save money that way. Because that one's not a huge deal to me.

[Lisa]

Right. Yeah.

[Christine]

Mostly because I've seen the lists of all the things they are allowed to spray organic crops with. They still spray them a whole lot.

[Lisa]

Yeah. That's why I kind of encourage people to more make partnerships with local farms than to just across the board by the label organic because it doesn't always mean what you think it means. And you're definitely going to pay for all of the government oversight of, of organic. So I'm like, unless you want to pay for all that, maybe find your local farm. But still that's going to be a lot more expensive. And you know, definitely when I saw that, that tray of six dollar chicken, I'm like, I think we're having chicken tonight.

[Christine]

Just you know, and Saturday. Yeah, buy a couple.

[Lisa]

Yes, exactly. So what are some of your other like major stock up items and other. Is there like a limit? Like okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna only get so much. Like they have this amount but I'm afraid it'll go bad or when do you exercise hesitation on like getting too much or if ever.

[Christine]

I'm not really afraid of things going bad. Dried pantry stable things, they just don't like your flour, your sugar, your rice, your wheat beans.

[Lisa]

Dried beans.

[Christine]

Dried beans. Canned dried beans will be harder to cook after a couple of years. So I might do a year and a half ish on dried beans. But your canned goods, you know the date they stamp on those canned goods, they're just some arbitrary number. The FDA website even says as long as the cans are secure and they don't smell or look bad, they're good indefinitely. Like just use them. So I like to do maybe a three month stock because in three months the sale is going to come back. It's usually runs on a three month cycle. So I'm, I'm trying to stick to that. Also I do like to maybe take a week and make a meal plan out of what's already in my pantry. And usually if I find things that are pushing their expiration date, I can make a mental note and be like, oh right, I don't really cook with garbanzo beans that much. Mental note. I'm not buying those again.

[Lisa]

Yeah, yeah. I had this recently happen with lentils and I'm like, I'm gonna make a big pot of lentil soup. But I Don't use lentils. Like we. I don't use.

[Christine]

I don't use lentils either.

[Lisa]

Yeah, we can. Like I'm gonna. I made the soup and it's good and everything, but, like, they're gonna sit in there for three years. So I think, like you mentioned some of the things that you look for very different than what other people might look for. Like you said evaporated milk. I don't think I even know how to use evaporated milk. So that wouldn't be something that I.

[Christine]

Use it a lot.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Stock up on but. Or even rice. Like we're our carb in our family. Not that we don't like rice. We just don't think of. It is usually potatoes or bread, you know, some kind of grain. And so I'll more quickly stock up on something like that, knowing there's no chance we're gonna ever, you know, it's never gonna go bad because we're going to use just nearly infinite quantities of it. I'm with you on like, sugar. We just have a big bucket of sugar because we make a lot of baked goods. And it goes. If you are baking everything from scratch, it can tend to go pretty quickly. So how do you figure out, like, what, you know, your family's going to use? I guess that obviously comes with time, but it also can come from some mistakes. Buying too much of something and realizing we don't. It happens in the garden too. Like, you grow a bunch of something, you're like, we don't like this, we just don't use it.

[Christine]

Yeah. I think that just comes with experience. Like, keep in mind, I've been a mom for over 20 years, right?

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Christine]

And so I have 20 years of experience of cooking for my family, and I've kind of figured out what they like and what they don't like. And then with teenagers, maybe toddlers also, they change their mind sometimes. So my 15 year old is like, recently he's experimenting with what he doesn't like. So just a few days ago he was like, yeah, I don't think I'm into pizza anymore. And I was like, you don't like pizza? And he was like, not right now, not right now. I'm not into pizza. And I was like, okay. And then he decided he doesn't love spicy food, which is kind of a new decision. I think he's just, you know, wants to experiment, making his own decisions. And I had some kind of Asian bowl or something which he normally likes. He loves it when it's salmon, but this was chicken. And he was like, yeah, this, this flavor profile isn't doing it for me.

[Lisa]

And I was like, we're food critics now.

[Christine]

Okay, sure. Of course not.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Well, you mentioned salmon seafood. We recently made salmon for the first, like, not the cans, like, I, we make the canned salmon all the time, but we made fresh salmon, which we never do. And everybody's like, remember when you used to make salmon? It was so good. And so we got, at the store, everybody loved it. But do you have tips for where to find that? Cause, like, man, this is expensive. I think I spent 40 bucks that night on salmon.

[Christine]

You have to get on sale.

[Lisa]

Yeah, just go in there and buy salmon food.

[Christine]

I, I'm only buying it when it's on sale, and it is a splurge. So you have to understand that. So what you can do is you can take splurge items and not have that be the main component of the meal. So the meal that I make with salmon is salmon. Asian rice bowls.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Christine]

So I cook the salmon, I season it, I cook it in the air fryer, and I flake it all up. Also, I'm pulling all the pin bones out, and then I have a bowl of like, flaked cooked salmon, and then we're making bowls. So here's the rice I talked about, right? So it's rice, edamame. So shelled edamame, avocado. And then I make some sauces, like, like, I'm going to say it wrong. Goujang sauce, and then like a mayo, some lime juice. And then they put the salmon on top. And so they kind of build their own bowl so that it's not like a huge chunk of salmon. It's some flaked salmon on top of rice, which is cheap. Edamalmai is not incredibly inexpensive, but it's a ton of protein and it goes a long way. They're so delicious. And then the sauces that I make, and they kind of, kind of build the bowl so I can take the expensive ingredient, the salmon, and then like kind of stretch it into a ton of meals. But I'm only buying salmon if it's like 6.99 a pound or less.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Christine]

Same with shrimp. It's, it's gotta be 6, 5, 6 dollars a pound or less. And they do run those sales. You just have to watch for it.

[Lisa]

Okay, so are you getting your ads and, or wait, you probably don't get ads anymore. I, I, it's been a while since I've done this, but I used to like the Weekly ad would come in the newspaper and I'd like throw the rest of this paper aside and just take out the Aldi ad and be like, okay, what are we going to have this week? And I would go and get like, stock up. And what we would eat would be whatever was on sale that week. Where are you finding?

[Christine]

They're all online, I'm sure. So I take five minutes. I take five minutes. Every Wednesday I pull up my three ads that run ads. For me, it's the Kroger store Albertsons, which I think Safeway owns or Tom Thumb or, or something. But in my area it's Albertsons. And then I have a local, a local store that sells like food club products. So I check those three. It takes five minutes. And I'm not even doing what I'm eating this week. I'm like, what are the stock up prices? Okay, this one, this one, this one, this, you know, so I'm like, it's the ground beef, it's Jimmy dean. Sausage is 2.99 a pound this week, which is a stock up price. Like I use sausage in everything and trying to remember what else I saw. Asparagus, 99 cents a pound. Guess what we're eating for the next two weeks for our veggie asparagus.

[Lisa]

Now will you take any of that and blanch it and throw it in the freezer or just like, okay, two weeks from now there's going to be some other vegetable on sale. We're just gonna.

[Christine]

Yeah, two weeks from now there will be another vegetable. So yeah, just our sides for this week is asparagus. Our snacks. Grapes are on sale for a dollar fifty a pound. We're doing grapes for our fruit. Like that's what we're doing.

[Lisa]

Yeah, that really makes sense. Like, I feel like I just get the same things over and over again regardless of what's on sale. It's just kind of like, this is what I buy. Whereas I used to more like follow along with like you're saying what was on sale and kind of build the meals around that. So how are you meal planning? Because obviously this kind of works in reverse of what a lot of people teach. Like go to a recipe book, go to Pinterest, write down what you want to make this week, and then go get the things, which is really backwards from how you're talking about it.

[Christine]

You, you can do both. So at this point of my cooking experience, I do reverse it. So it's just called reverse meal planning where you take what you already have and build from that. So as an example, I'll have some chicken in the freezer. I got a couple of sad looking bell peppers, maybe in the fridge. And an onion. I always have onions. That's a. They're always in my fridge. And I'm like, about fajitas for dinner tonight. You know, we'll have some chicken fajitas. Maybe I don't have tortillas. So I'll write tortillas on my shopping list. But what I needed to buy one thing for dinner because I have everything else. So that's the reverse style. However, when I was a newly married, a newlywed or whatever, and a new mom, I did it the other way. So I went through the recipe books, except I was shopping. This was before Pinterest existed. That's how long ago this was. Like, hey, people didn't have Internet in their homes yet. Wireless. Not a thing. Netflix just started with the mail DVD.

[Lisa]

The DVDs. We got the. Yeah.

[Christine]

Yes. And I was like, this Netflix thing feels like a scam. Like, remember that?

[Lisa]

This is never gonna work.

[Christine]

This is never gonna work. That's totally what I thought. Jokes on me. Yeah, we did. I did the recipe books, but I was like, chicken. Chicken's cheap. So I'm gonna look through the chicken category and pick that. And then our breakfasts were pretty simple. Oatmeal. I made homemade pancakes or whatever. Never did cereal. Who could afford that?

[Lisa]

Right? No, that's. Yeah, that's always a splurge.

[Christine]

Always a splurge. Like, I never did steak. I never did seafood. At the beginning, it was like chicken ground beef was pretty expensive, inexpensive. Back then I would do breakfast for dinner because eggs were really cheap, you know, and I would just go as cheap as possible. You can do it that way. And here's the other secret is I only. We were an ingredient house. We. I only bought the ingredients to make the meals. We didn't buy granola bars. I didn't buy fruit. Fruit flavored syrup for pancakes. That was a splurge. We couldn't afford that.

[Lisa]

Right.

[Christine]

I didn't buy popcorn. I didn't buy fruit snacks.

[Lisa]

We didn't buy juice popcorn. Just. We popped it ourselves. You know, that's cheap. But yeah.

[Christine]

Oh, I had really young kids. So, like, I didn't. I was like, popcorn scary.

[Lisa]

Oh, yeah. My husband, when they were little, popcorn at night.

[Christine]

But yes, I would make my own granola because I was like, who can afford to buy granola but oats are cheap.

[Lisa]

So cheap. Yeah.

[Christine]

I made everything from scratch. I didn't buy Bread. I made bread. I didn't buy lasagna noodles. I made lasagna noodles because it was cheaper.

[Lisa]

Now, is it for lasagna noodles? I feel like a lasagna nose are like a dollar a box, but maybe I haven't crunched the numbers.

[Christine]

They're about a dollar.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Christine]

But back then, back, like, I wouldn't make dishes that needed cheese because cheese cost.

[Lisa]

Cheese is expensive.

[Christine]

I was like, I can't make. Yeah. Because I was like, enchiladas cost too much money because of all the cheese. And. Yeah, the $50 on the noodles, it doesn't sound like a lot in your head, but I already had flour and eggs and water and salt at my house, so I had everything to make it. And when your grocery budget is only 25 a week, which mine was for a long time, A$50 is a big percentage.

[Lisa]

Yep, it is. And I like the idea of not thinking you need everything. Like, just because some people buy certain things and show their plates on Instagram or YouTube, you know, like, you and I might show things now that maybe 20 years ago we didn't necessarily buy. So if steak night isn't in the budget, then you can still find those same macros and quality with ground beef. And so I think that's an important distinction is like, you know, prioritize the healthy ingredients are the same, have the same, like, macro, caloric, type of, you know, equivalent and focus more on those things.

[Christine]

I was talking to a girl recently about the steak night. She substituted taking her family out for dinner. They used to do, like, a family. The whole family go out for dinner. I think she's got three or four kids, and I guess it would be a nicer place. In my family, the nice place was Red Lobster. Is that what your nice place was when you're a kid?

[Lisa]

I think.

[Christine]

I think they did.

[Lisa]

I think we had Red Lobster, but.

[Christine]

Yeah, we did it once a year around Christmas.

[Lisa]

I don't know.

[Christine]

But otherwise, no.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Christine]

So she said it would be about 150 to take her whole family out to eat. And I was like, wow, that maybe that is what it costs these days. Who knows? And they decided to do nice dinner at home. So I. I think they did go and buy steak and some other things, but they made everything at home. And I think it cost $30.

[Lisa]

Well, yeah, right.

[Christine]

For the family.

[Lisa]

I mean, for our family, when we all have steak, which we do like, we. We can't afford steak. You know, like it. We. Not. We couldn't, but we can. But if we're to all have steak for my size. Everybody loves steak. I mean, that's. It's not 30 bucks, I can tell you that. But still, it's still cheaper, probably, than taking everybody out for burgers and fries.

[Christine]

Honestly, especially if you're going to go to five guys. Oh, my gosh.

[Lisa]

We made that mistake one time. Yes. It's so expensive.

[Christine]

So expensive. Their fries are awesome.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Yeah. What's up with that?

[Christine]

They get their fries from Idaho, thank you very much.

[Lisa]

Okay, so that's a real high dollar thing. They gotta drive all the way up to Idaho, get those?

[Christine]

No, they ship them.

[Lisa]

They.

[Christine]

They make their fries fresh in. In house, and they salt them.

[Lisa]

Okay. The premium. Well, okay, so reverse meal planning. I think that makes a lot of sense. Do you have, like, any other tips for how to make meals not boring? When you're, like, just shopping for what's on sale, like the, the meal you mentioned with the salmon and the sauce and, you know, that sounds like something you've probably done a lot, but to me, I've never done that. So I'm like, okay, I gotta get my recipe book out. Think about this. Do you try to stick with things that, like, you make over and over again, but yet jazz them up a little bit seasonally, or how are you doing all that?

[Christine]

So for the salmon bowls, it's like one of those tried and true. Everyone loves it. They're very excited about it. I almost don't even have a recipe. Not really. Not anymore.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Christine]

Because I've made it so many times. If you're not comfortable in the kitchen, do not be afraid of a sauce packet, a spice blend. Like, try them out. You know, you, meals do not have to be complicated. They can be a protein, a vegetable, and a carb.

[Lisa]

Right.

[Christine]

That's what most restaurants do anyway.

[Lisa]

That's what we do. Formula. Yeah.

[Christine]

Get a bottle of sauce, throw it on your protein, boom, you're done. You know, I would say to make delicious food, you need two things. Like, if you're like, my food sucks and restaurants are better, there's two things restaurants use that you are not using. It is salt and fat.

[Lisa]

I always say that same thing.

[Christine]

Yep, it is. You just don't have the cooking skills yet, which is fine. We all have to learn it. Like, when I was a. A college student, when I was trying to learn how to cook, I made tons of flops that I was like, this is disgusting. I actually don't, like, you know, fill in the blank. What don't I like? Trying to think. I don't like feta cheese.

[Lisa]

Oh, man, I love it. But, yeah, we all have.

[Christine]

I know a lot of people love it. I don't love it. It's just my thing. Whatever. Yeah, I. Feta cheese. I tried a bunch of stuff that I was like, this is not the vibe for me. But restaurants use so much salt.

[Lisa]

Well, one thing I've been noticing is, like, it seems like salt definitely makes your food really good, and I like plenty of salt. But then, like, cheaper restaurants, like ones where you're like, this is just one step up from McDonald's, they use too much salt, and then they don't add any herbs. Like, they don't add anything fresh. It's just like, salt. So it's like, okay, you would even go a step above the restaurants, Add plenty of fat, plenty of salt, and then add in freshness, like, add in herbs, add in maybe some fresh avocado or just anything like that. That's kind of hard for a restaurant to source because it might go bad. That's something that you have the freedom to do at home.

[Christine]

Yeah, for sure. If you. If you're a newbie cook and. And you're like, my food is bland. You need salt. And if you're like, it tastes one note, you know, like, it's missing, you know, the coat on the tongue or, like, richness. You need fat. And if it's. If you're thinking, oh, it feels maybe I added enough salt. But it's like, you know, it's not hidden. You need acid. There's a documentary and a book called, yeah, Salt, Fat. Acid fat.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Christine]

And everyone needs to go watch that documentary. You will learn so much about cooking, and it's so accurate. Just. Just try it a little bit. Just try it. I made. In college, I made scrambled eggs for my roommates. 1. It was like scrambled eggs and toast. It was nothing. And they were like, these eggs are the best eggs I've ever had. What did you put in it? And I was like, salt and pepper and that's. And cooked it in butter. That's it. That's literally it. And they were like, nom, nom, nom, nom. Right? It is that simple.

[Lisa]

It is. And then also knowing not to overcook things. Like, I'm thinking about eggs, I'm thinking about meat. You can take something that would be good, add tons of salt, but then, like, cook it till it's just, you know, like, eggs just till they're powdery and meat, until it's chewy and you're going to ruin it there, too. So that's another place to.

[Christine]

I have. I. I have all kinds of feelings about people overcooking pork. So I'm not talking about a pork shoulder roast. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about, like, pork chops, a pork tenderloin. Oh, my gosh. If you overcook those, you'll be eating shoelace.

[Lisa]

Yes. Yeah.

[Christine]

Like, if you. Pork is allowed to be the barest little hint of pink in the middle, especially on a tenderloin. Not a loin, a tenderloin. I've seen people put a tenderloin in the crock pot and cook it to death. And I'm like, no, no wonder you.

[Lisa]

Don'T like your food.

[Christine]

You don't like pork.

[Lisa]

No wonder you want to go to restaurants all the time. Yeah. And chicken, too. Chicken's another thing that you can really mess up by cooking it too much. I mean, it's edible, but it's not near as good.

[Christine]

That's why I love a pork, not pork. That's why I love dark meat on chicken. It's very forgiving.

[Lisa]

Yeah, it is more forgiving. Yes. But I like chicken breasts because they're so easy and convenient, and I can thaw them out really, really fast. But, yes, the flavor isn't quite there, as with, like, dark meat.

[Christine]

I do like the dark meat. There's more fat content. It tastes better.

[Lisa]

That's true. The more fat. Yeah. Luke doesn't really even like going to restaurants.

[Christine]

We.

[Lisa]

We do. Like, we'll go out on a date night, but he's like, it's just so much better at home. And it is. Because once you learn to cook, like, do you know how to jazz it up without having to really, you know, sit there and read a recipe? You know what you're doing?

[Christine]

I can't believe how expensive the restaurants are these days, don't you think?

[Lisa]

Oh, yeah. No. Yeah. If we even go out for pizza, it's probably the cheapest thing we can do as a family is go out for pizza. But it's. It's real expensive. Yes.

[Christine]

Yeah, I'd rather not.

[Lisa]

No, it's. It's just for us, like, going on a date night, you know, if we eat a dinner at home after all the kids are in bed, we have to eat at, like, 9:00. And so for us to, like, go and talk, we have to actually go somewhere. And so that's. That's what typically makes us go on a date night. But we're like, definitely subpar food while we're here. You know, it's better at home. But I love that when you learn to cook book. And maybe this is just from experience. Maybe it's from actually doing research, like reading the book you were just mentioning. You can be intuitive in the kitchen and you don't have to stick to a strict meal plan. You can be well stocked, shop the sales, and know how to throw things together with like an arsenal of meals that you have. Do you have a. An actual list or is it just kind of like an ongoing mentalist? These are the things we like. This is what I make. I can pull from this really easily.

[Christine]

Yeah, I have a mental list at this point. And that's just from years and years and years of experience. If. If you don't have 20 years of experience in your pocket. Yeah. Keep. Keep a little notebook or open the notes app on your phone and jot a few things down if your family says that they really like something. So over the years, as I've made a dish and the whole family's like, oh, my gosh, this is a keeper. Then I'm like, ding, yes. Okay, this is a hit with my family. And then over time, you just learn flavor profiles. You learn what well together and what things work with your family. If your family doesn't like Indian food, don't make Indian food. You know, you don't have to just because other people do it. If you don't. Listen, I know you're the sourdough lady. If people don't like sourdough, you don't.

[Lisa]

They're crazy.

[Christine]

You so. Well, I like it, but some people don't. It's too tame.

[Lisa]

No, some people don't.

[Christine]

So. So don't force yourself to do it because it's trending right now. If you think avocado toast is stupid, don't buy it and don't make it. Like, you don't have to follow the trends. Have you seen the trend where I guess it's over now, but was like, did you know that if you mix cottage cheese with chocolate powder or whatever.

[Lisa]

Cheese is everything now. Chocolate mixes everything.

[Christine]

Did you know that if you blend cottage cheese and I'm like, man, what all these things cottage cheese is having.

[Lisa]

I think there must be some cottage cheese board paying for this because it is everywhere. I'm falling forward. We're buying it now.

[Christine]

It's everywhere. I did blend it. I tried it. It. The cottage cheese pudding thing was not a win in my house. It was like. It was weird.

[Lisa]

But, yeah, I've heard of that.

[Christine]

Too. Like, did you know that if you. What is it? Mix hard boiled eggs and cocoa powder, you'll get chocolate mousse? And I'm like, will you?

[Lisa]

Oh, my word. We tried that.

[Christine]

How was it? They're lying to us, Lisa.

[Lisa]

Oh, no.

[Christine]

Hey, funny story. Did you know? No. You probably didn't know this. I'm talking to my sister in law who's like, big into baking. And I was like, hey, I wanted to try a new sourdough recipe. You said you found one after all these years of trying and hating them all. And she's like, yeah. And I was like, hey, can you send me the recipe? It's yours.

[Lisa]

Oh, nice.

[Christine]

Isn't that funny? I was like, oh, I know Lisa.

[Lisa]

Yeah, I know her. Yeah, I do. I do a lot of sourdough. And. And you bake bread as well. That was one of the questions I'm supposed to ask you. How many loaves of bread do you make in a day?

[Christine]

I make four loaves in a day.

[Lisa]

Okay, so you do like a big bulk day. And how do you do that?

[Christine]

I don't. I don't do sourdough.

[Lisa]

Oh, okay. You're doing these. I do, yeah. With like.

[Christine]

I'm doing yeast sandwich bread. Because sourdough takes too long. I love sourdough. It just takes too long and it's like too much counter time. Like, I don't want to do that. I want to make it and have it be done in a few hours, and then I'm done for several days.

[Lisa]

Right, so you make. So how do you store it? Are you putting it in Ziplocs or how are you keeping it fresh?

[Christine]

Yeah, yeah, I just make Ziplocs. And then that's our bread for the week.

[Lisa]

Right.

[Christine]

And they're big. The ones I'm making, I'm making a French bread. And so it's probably the equivalent of eight regular loaves.

[Lisa]

How many cups of flour per loaf?

[Christine]

The four loaves take 12 cups.

[Lisa]

Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, so it's a good amount. Yeah, that's pretty standard, I feel like, per loaf of bread, but either way get big.

[Christine]

So I do. There's a good amount of sugar in them, so the yeast have a lot to eat. And I do like a 4 rise cycle in a humid oven.

[Lisa]

Yeah. I think we all get really used to and comfortable with the things that we make all the time, and then we swear by them because. And I do the exact same thing. I'm like, oh, but it's so much easier if you do it this way. And we all do that because we're like, everything is easy when you've done it a bajillion times in a row. And you know exactly how it fits into your life, whatever your own schedule looks like, and you don't have to even think about it twice. And so I think that's why it's so important to I tell people, like, master what works for you. Master a recipe. If you don't ever want to learn another one, that's fine. But get something that feels as easy as, like, you're not probably pulling out a book or a sheet of paper. Like, you're literally just like making your bread. It's as easy as making oatmeal or any other thing that people would consider easy becomes easy when you've done it a lot. But.

[Christine]

And I like this one. So I don't use bread pans. I cook them on cookie sheets. So they're like. It's like French loaf bread.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Christine]

So it's pretty big and long. And I like this one because it's so soft. And I do use vinegar in the dough, which helps. And we rise it a ton of times, which also helps keep it moist. But it's so soft. And then even if it stays in a Ziploc for like three, four, five days, it doesn't get that kind of grainy. You know, some sandwich breads will get a little crumbly. This one doesn't do that. It stays soft the whole time. It's great.

[Lisa]

Yeah. I mean, like I said, I think we all just get the things that work for us. And it's like, this is what we can use for all of our sandwiches. We feel very comfortable with the texture of this. And I think everybody needs to find that recipe for their bread, but then also for like a handful of recipes for the rest of the food so that we're not overthinking it. I think think that's what makes all of this overwhelming is there's just so many options and there's trends and there's, you know, YouTube channels like you and I have where we're all sharing. Well, this is what works for us. And you have to take what you see and then adapt it for what would actually work for your family. You know, your schedule, where you live. There's just so many factors.

[Christine]

Yeah, I agree.

[Lisa]

Yeah. So what are some of your other go to's like that you make, and you said you do tons of rice, so you do like a lot of stir fry type stuff have actually.

[Christine]

No.

[Lisa]

No.

[Christine]

I guess The. The Korean little bowls use a lot of rice. Oh, I'm from the south and my mom's from Louisiana. So two of the standard dishes I had growing up were gumbo, which is served over rice and red beans and rice, which is served over rice. And then growing up in the south, we also put our chili over rice.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Christine]

I can't remember if both of my parents grew up with that. My dad kind of grew up in Texas, my mom in Louisiana, and I think they both put their chili on top of rice. And it wasn't until I went to college that I was like, oh, not everybody does that.

[Lisa]

No, no, we do cornbread.

[Christine]

They just eat their chili in a bowl. Like a psychopath.

[Lisa]

Yeah, yeah. Not over rice. That's not. I've actually. I don't know if I've ever done that Pasta sometimes.

[Christine]

Oh, yeah, the Cincinnati chilies like, over. Over pasta. But we. Ours has always been over rice.

[Lisa]

And then, I mean, it doesn't sound bad. Sounds good. It's not something I've ever done.

[Christine]

Great. And it's a nice meal. Extender rice is super cheap. And then my husband loves rice pudding. And then, yeah, the bowls, like, anytime you do beans and rice, like a Mexican style dish, you're using rice. My family loves that. I have a chicken and rice casserole that I make sometimes. Uses rice. Like, I don't know, it just. I feel like I'm always cooking rice and then I'll make a pot of gumbo and I'm like, oh, our leftover rice is gone. Making more rice. I make it a ton. Yeah.

[Lisa]

So do you have a rice cooker or you just put it in a pot with lid?

[Christine]

I just do now. I've been using the instant pot, but I used just a pot on the stove for like 18 years before I got the instant pot.

[Lisa]

Brown rice, white rice.

[Christine]

White rice.

[Lisa]

Okay. Yeah. What are some fun things? This is a listener question. When shopping for a large family, what fun things do you include that are budget friendly? Like, maybe think back to your early marriage days or even now. I mean, I think you're, you know, very frugal all through your life. So. Yeah, what are some fun things?

[Christine]

Fun food items?

[Lisa]

Yeah, fun food items, if any. You might be like, what's fun? But saving money's fun. Let's make granola.

[Christine]

Saving money is fun. Okay. If you want fun items and you want to save money on your grocery bill, here is your new rule. For anyone listening going forward from right now, you cannot buy, quote, fun, unquote items Unless they are on sale.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Christine]

They have to be 50 off.

[Lisa]

50 off.

[Christine]

50 ice cream, cookies, chips.

[Lisa]

Where do you find this? I. I mean, I'm going to the store, so that's probably the reason.

[Christine]

Yeah, that's the reason. If you're not looking at the ads, you won't know. So last week, my local store had Tillamook ice cream, which is, I guess, more local to me. The Tillamook Factory.

[Lisa]

We have telemo. Oh, maybe it's on sale where you are live.

[Christine]

Yeah, it was on sale for 2.99 a tub. It's normally $6. So that's 50 off. And that's. That's when you're allowed to buy your ice cream. I see bags of chips for A$99 a bag. Usually around super bowl time or like Memorial Day or Fourth of July, they do go on sale, but if they're not on sale, you're not buying chips. Like, you're just not. You're throwing money in the garbage so you can have it. Just wait until it goes on sale.

[Lisa]

Okay, I guess that's fair.

[Christine]

So I'll buy them. I'll buy them on sale. Yeah, but if they're not on sale, no way.

[Lisa]

Right. Well. And like, with ice cream, we have such a good local milk source that I'm like, it's. It's so hard for me to buy ice cream because I always have milk at home in abundance. We get eight gallons a week, and, you know, that's plenty to make ice cream, like, every single day. And so I struggle to buy stuff like that. So, like, for me, it's for me and, like, my family. And I have a daughter that loves being in the kitchen, and so she makes desserts for us every single day. And so this is not all on me, but it's fun to stock up all the things that we need for her to make those fun things.

[Christine]

Homemade ice cream is now kind of amazing if you've never made it. I do have a little ice cream maker. I haven't done it in a bit, but cookies are more my thing. Ice cream's not so much my thing.

[Lisa]

Okay. Yeah, but.

[Christine]

Okay. Okay. I thought of a treat that I've done my kids whole life. I always have chocolate chips and peanut butter and bananas. So when my kids were really small, they do it now. They get a banana and they coat the whole thing with peanut butter, and we do a little chocolate chip sprinkle, and we cut it into bites. They love it even now. Yeah, teenagers love it.

[Lisa]

That's very Inexpensive.

[Christine]

I mean, it's very inexpensive. It's filling, it's fun, it's delicious.

[Lisa]

Peanut butter and bananas are very cheap. And I'm sure you probably only buy chocolate chips when they're on sale.

[Christine]

I do really only buy them when they're on sale. I just got a bag from my Kroger store as a valued customer. They gave me a free bag of Nestle chocolate chips.

[Lisa]

So they're free.

[Christine]

Booyah. Free.

[Lisa]

One of the grocery shopping. Wait, you don't, you don't do once a month shopping? Because this was a, this was a logistical question on keeping perishable items if you only shop once a month. Dairy, produce, eggs.

[Christine]

But I can't answer that though. So. Eggs last a really long time.

[Lisa]

Don't worry about that.

[Christine]

Don't worry about that at all. Milk. So I buy organic, which have a very long shelf life.

[Lisa]

Right. Because it's, it's hyper or ultra pasteurized. Hyper.

[Christine]

It's ultra pasteurized. So the organic milk will go two months, Months or so. You can also buy shelf stable milk. It's not weird. For some reason, people think that's weird. A lot of other countries, Latin countries only do shelf stable milk and Dollar Tree sells it.

[Lisa]

Well also if you're getting it in plastic. So the I, I do get milk from a local farm and it's in glass jars and we just go through that fresh. But then we always want more cream because we're obsessed with, you know, that extra fat. And so I get that from Azure Standard and it comes in little plastic, little plastic jugs or whatever. I put it straight in the freezer. And because I buy like 12 at a time, sometimes even 24, and then I just get out like two at a time to thaw in the fridge and they. It keeps really well in the freezer.

[Christine]

Yeah, A lot of the dairy products I'll do like yogurt, cottage cheese, if they're still sealed and you flip them upside down in the fridge. I don't know why they last longer that way.

[Lisa]

I never knew that. Huh? Never knew that.

[Christine]

Isn't that weird? It's very, very bizarre. But it's totally true. I've also found that the yogurts, like the Greek yogurts that I buy, those last past the day.

[Lisa]

Yogurt and cottage cheese, those last a month. Like those are not.

[Christine]

Yeah, those are easy. And then if you want to do produce, there's some produce items that just last a long time. Anyway, I've found like root vegetables and all root vegetables, lettuce, Citrus. If you keep your avocados in the fridge, the last one, they like really.

[Lisa]

Basically don't ripen at all until you.

[Christine]

Get them out, like at all, until you take them out of fridge. And then your, your ones that don't last as long, tomatoes, berries, probably bananas, you know, just eat those first, eat.

[Lisa]

Those in the first week or two.

[Christine]

In the first week or two and then, and then move on to your other ones. And even most people that shop once a month, they'll do a two week produce that goes bad quickly restock.

[Lisa]

Or you could just also have frozen berries and just do like, you know, throw them in your yogurt, throw them in smoothies. You can still. Yeah, yeah, it's totally doable. And I think going into the store less often for some people helps with that impulse buying. So if you don't want to do pickup because of some of the reasons that you mentioned, Christine, you could, you know, still organize it around a monthly thing or if you're rural and getting to a store is very difficult, then you know, there's a lot of stores.

[Christine]

That do curbside pickup for a very, very small or non existent fee. So I'm pretty sure Sam's Club does a pickup. So you just put in your Sam's Club order, drive up, load your car, you drive away. Easy money. Like it's just so easy.

[Lisa]

Well, kids, like there's a value there, you know.

[Christine]

Yes.

[Lisa]

Like I wish it was available when I had, well, probably not when I had my first two little kids because that was like my outing. But I would say when I had four kids that were all under whatever age, that would be six or seven, that would have been when it would have just really been nice.

[Christine]

Yeah, it was. I remember that it was so hard to take four kids to the store. Mine were 7 and under when I had four. And it was like baby strapped to me, car seat in the thing, my two toddlers sitting in the, you know, the huge thing from Walmart, the, you know, the enormous one.

[Lisa]

Oh, I will refuse to do those things. They have no like maneuverability.

[Christine]

You can't. It's a disaster. And the Walmart pickup didn't come out until all of mine were older and in school. But it was so hard that as a parent I always put my kids to bed relatively early, like 7pm when they were that age, when they were that small. And so I would put them to bed, leave my husband in charge and me and my girlfriend would go shop alone.

[Lisa]

We did stuff like that.

[Christine]

It was crazy.

[Lisa]

Yeah. My sister And I were just reminiscing because we had a friend that the three of us, we get together and we did this, and now we're in such different seasons of life that it just makes no sense at all. We're like, that was so fun.

[Christine]

It was fun. It was so much fun.

[Lisa]

Yup. Yup. Well, this has been so helpful. So many great tips. Things that I'm like, okay, I should implement this. Tell the listeners where they can best find you and find more of your tips and your knowledge. 20 years of, you know, cooking from scratch, knowing how to stock and shop frugally, where they can get all that.

[Christine]

Yeah, I'm just on YouTube at frugal fit Mom. You can find me. I have over a thousand videos from saving money tips, grocery savings tips, and then cooking recipes archives. There. There's a ton of archives in there. All my breads are in there. My banana bread. This banana bread will help you win friends and influence people. It is the best one. I stand. I stand by that bold statement. You won't find a better banana bread recipe than mine. You won't. I promise.

[Lisa]

Okay, so for nothing else, head over to Frugal fit mom on YouTube. Scroll down. I'm looking. Where's the banana bread?

[Christine]

It's an old one. It's an old, like 20. 20 maybe. Yeah, just do the search bar banana bread. You'll find it.

[Lisa]

Gotcha. Okay. If for no other reason there, go. Go blow up that Frugal Fit mom banana bread recipe. All right, well, Christy, thank you so much.

[Christine]

Oh, thanks, Lisa. It's been fun to chat.

[Lisa]

Thanks, as always, for listening to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. My husband, Luke and I and our eight kids work together side by side on our little homestead and use our blog, podcast and YouTube YouTube channel to reach other homemakers, home cooks and homesteaders with practical recipes and daily family life. For everyday sourdough recipes, make sure to check out our blog, farmassomboon.com and to dig deeper, we do also offer a course called Simple Sourdough over at Bit Ly FarmhouseSourdo course. That's all one word. Bit Ly FarmhouseSourdo Course. If you're looking to learn how we earn an income online, check out my YouTube course at Bit Ly Farmhouse YouTube course. All one word.